Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The Squint Chronicles

That's right--an 18-wheeler with a flatbed full of fire hydrants. Gloria said something very witty about dogs as we passed, but I unfortunately can't remember what she said.

Next is something you also don't see every day:

What, you say? Why, that's just a half-eaten piece of cheese pizza with parmesan sprinkled on top. Yes, but this is Eli 9.4's pizza, and he's a philosophical purist when it comes to pizza--cheese only, with no adulterations on top. He's never put parmesan on his pizza. This is Freud voluntarily going into Jungian analysis.

For the hat trick, here's one more thing you don't see every day:

That was painted by Rolinda, an elephant who lives at the Tyler Zoo. The handlers get dressed in rain gear from head to toe, take out buckets of paint, and the elephants go to work. Rolinda enjoys it more than anyone, according to the zoo employee we talked to in the gift shop.

Here's a picture of the savanna at the Tyler Zoo, although you probably need to click on it for the full effect:

Hey, it's squint-a-rific! This is a long view, with three lions in the foreground, a separation trench so that the lions can't eat the antelopes and zebras in the middle ground, and in the back left you can see the elephant's area (I think there are half a dozen elephants, but only one is in the picture). In the back left, beyond the reach of the frame, there are four giraffes.

The separation of areas using natural-looking barriers makes for long views that are open and very appealing. This is really quite a terrific zoo.

Last picture, and yes, there's glass or plexiglass or something between us: